Posts from August 2007

Monday, 27 August 2007

Fools Play was a very exciting show because it was the show where we officially announced that Jake Ynzunza was becoming the new Fool. We also revealed his color:

PINK

The show had a very funny ending. We watched “clips” from all the apprentices, and then announced that we were going to decide who would become the next Fool… via a waffle eating contest! We then announced the color of the new shirt, and neither Esa nor Josh were terribly thrilled about becoming the Pink Fool. But Jake was so excited at the waffles that he didn’t even notice the pink shirt, so when we said “go” the other two apprentices held back while Jake went hog wild. But after he won and we tried to give him the pink shirt he was so horrified at the thought of becoming the Pink Fool that he tried to refuse… until we revealed that as a Fool, he will get a weekly allowance of $200 from the till ever week.

It was then that Josh and Esa exclaimed their displeasure. We tried to point out that they didn’t even try to eat the waffles. But eventually we decided that we needed another way to decide the next Fool. I settled unilaterally on a Ladder Match, much to Mike’s hesitation. But Jake won the ladder match.

Afterwards Josh & Esa cut a wrestling-style promo in which they decided that they could no longer continue as apprentices, but they would find some other way to become a part of Fools Play by founding their own “renegade” improv troupe, the “New Fool Order.” They’d had T-shirts made for just such an occasion—the Fool head with X’d out eyes and an upside-down smile.

As they stormed out they said cheerfully that they’d see us all at Rib Eye.

Thursday, 9 August 2007

Aight! It’s late. I need to go sweeps. Peeps! Let’s see what happened yesterday (Wednesday (it’s after midnight after all—double afters)). Carrie went in to work a little late (on purpose), so I didn’t have to drive her there before heading to work myself.

Work itself was relatively uneventful, but it was the walk back to the car that was startling. I’d parked on Stadium Way, so as I was walking back up there I was eating some blackberries here and there. When I got to the section of the road where 4th I noticed something odd. See, 4th is a rather steep hill that points directly down to and ends at Stadium Way. Opposite 4th is just a super-steep hill covered in blackberries, with a fence and a guard rail. I noticed as I was walking up the sidewalk that the blackberry bushes seemed a lot farther away from the sidewalk than they were the day before. They used to be right up against the sidewalk, but now they were like eight feet away.

It was at that point that I actually started paying attention to my surroundings and noticed that the guardrail, the fence, and in fact the entire area at the end of 4th had been pushed away from the sidewalk. It looked as if something horribly heavy had come roaring down the hill and gone straight across Stadium Way, over the sidwalk, and into guardrail, pushing it, the fence, the blackberries, and a tree about eight feet from their usual position. It’d uprooted the guardrail’s posts completely out of the ground and also completely flattened a road sign.

Isn’t that amazing? It must have been one hell of an impact. Look at how crazily the tree is leaning in that first picture, and notice the completely-flattened sign and broken guardrail posts in the second picture. That guardrail should be right up against the sidewalk, maybe 2 feet away at its greatest distance.

The strangest thing of all, though? There was a toy guitar at the scene, just leaning up against the railing:

I didn’t notice any broken glass anywhere at the scene, though, so I’m really curious as to what could have possibly happened.

So the last couple of days have been pretty un-eventful. Yesterday (Monday) Carrie & I went over to her folks’ house and barbecued a whole bunch of good food. There was, let’s see, Yoshida salmon, zucchini, potatoes with onion & garlic, and green beans with bacon. Carrie went and picked up Grandma K. from her place; I went straight to the Hamm house; and Carrie’s folks met us all there, straight from the airport. They’d been in Kansas visiting Jim’s mother, and their plane only arrived that…Whoa, wait a minute, what was that? Was that a picture of a dog? In my yard? What the!?

Let me take another look:

Hey, waitaminute, what’s that dog doing in my car now? That must be how it got to my yard. But why would a dog go in my car?

Well, the answer is probably pretty obvious. On Saturday, Carrie & I got a dog. We went in the morning to Ikea and bought dog supplies, then in the early afternoon we went to the Tacoma Humane Society and when we left an hour later, a dog came with us.

We named her サツキ (Satsuki), but we just call her スキ (“Suki”). She’s a four-year-old, 43 lb Spaniel mix (probably mostly German Spaniel). She’d been living in the wild for upwards of five months, so she’s still VERY skittish and shy, but she’s getting steadily better as the days go on. She has a mild case of “kennel cough,” but that’s hardly surprising considering she was at the Humane Society for four days before we got her.

Carrie is very excited. She’s been wanting a dog for YEARS. Fantastico, however, is not so excited. She’s mostly just confused as to why that thing is still here. Dogs have been over to our house before, but they’ve always left after a while. Suki’s been here three nights running!

So anyway, yes, we have a dog. Yes, you can come visit her. But, no, she can’t hang out with your dog(s) until she’s over her kennel cough and no longer contagious (two weeks from now).

Sunday, 5 August 2007

Link of the Month: Physorg This is my favorite website to get news about what’s happening in the fast-paced, exciting world of science. Yes, I am a nerd. Why do you ask?

DVD of the Month:Hot Fuzz Still one of my favorite movies of the year. Shockingly funny and with a pitch-perfect third act. Read my review!

Album of the Month: Mika: Life in Cartoon Motion Born in Beiruit, Mika grew up listening to a lot of Queen, a whole lot of Supertramp, some Elton John, some Rufus Wainright, and a li’l bit of Prince. And you can tell. His music is bright, free-wheeling, piano-driven, falsetto-sung music, the kind that people haven’t made since the heyday of classic rock in the 70s. Infectiously catchy. My favorite song on the album is “Stuck in the Middle.”